While on holiday in Devon, Owen visits the granddaughter of Samuel Coleridge, the Romantic poet

1911

Ford Model T assembly plant opened in ManchesterBeatrice and Webb's PovertyDer Blaue Reiter group of expressionist artists formed in MunichFrazer's The Golden Bough (11 vols.-1915; first two vols., 1890)Roald Amundsen reaches South PoleSuffragette riots in London

Wells' The New Machiavelli

Owen works as a pupil teacher at Wyle Cop School; starts to read Keats and sits London University Matriculation ExamsOwen passes London University exams but without honours needed for a scholarshipOwen is appointed lay-assistant to the Rev Herbert Wiggin at Dunsden, nr Reading

1912

First Post-Impressionism Exhibition in LondonTitanic sinksWidespread strikes in BritainWomen's Franchise Bill rejected by the House of Commons; suffragettes riot in LondonSome 400 cinemas in London; establishment of British Board of Film Censors

Suffragette Emily Davies dies after throwing herself under the King's horse at the DerbyFreud's Totem and Taboo; also Interpretation of DreamsStravinsky's The Rite of Spring'Cat and Mouse' ActHouse of Commons passes Irish Home Rule Bill but rejected by the House of LordsSuffragette deonstrations

Owen leaves Dunsden and breaks with the Evangelical approach to ChristianityOwen suffers from congestion of the lungsOwen hears he has failed the Reading University examsOwen leaves England for France where he teaches English at the Berlitz Language School in Bordeaux

1914

August: Great War breaks out (to November 1918)Irish Home Rule Act passed but later suspended because of warWorld War One - although segregated, black soldiers enlisted to fight in US armed forces

Pound's Des Imagistes

Owen ‘comes of age’ at 21Owen tutor to a Catholic family in BordeauxOwen meets Laurent Tailhade, a French symbolist poet

1915

War intensifies with huge lossesZeppelin attacks on LondonSinking of LusitaniaEinstein's general theory of relativitySecond Battle of Ypres

Brooke's 1914 and Other PoemsBuchan's The Thirty-Nine StepsKafka's MetamorphosisMaugham's Of Human BondageSome's Imagist Poets: An Anthology, ed. Amy Lowell (further Imagist anthologies followed in 1916 and 1917)Ford Maddox Ford's The Good Soldier

The English Channel is considered too unsafe to cross. Owen remains in France until SeptemberOwen returns to England and joins the Artists’ Rifles in October

1916

Easter Rising, DublinConscription introducedBattle of the SommeTheories of shell-shock developJung's Psychology of the UnconsciousBattle of VerdunLloyd George becomes Prime Minister

The Great Migration to the north begins (US)

Brighouse's Hobson's ChoiceWells' Mr Britling Sees it Through

Owen attends a training course in London where he shows his poems to Harold Munro at the Poetry BookshopOwen commissioned into the Manchester Regiment and leaves for the Western Front on 29th December

1st January: Owen joins the 2nd Manchesters on the Somme near Beaumont Hamel6th January: Owen holds the dug out in no man’s land where the sentry is blinded (The Sentry)20th January: front line the platoon suffer severe frost (Futility)March: Owen suffers from concussionMay: suffers from shell shockJune: at Craiglockhart meets Sassoon and Robert GravesNov: Owen at Scarborough on light duties, where he writes and redrafts many poems

1918

End of the Great War: Armistice, 11 NovemberRutherford splits atomRepresentation of the People Act (4th Reform Bill) gives the vote to all men over twenty-one and women over thirtyStopes' Married Love; ParenthoodFisher Education Act raises school-leaving age to fourteenInfluenza pandemic, kills over 20 million people world-wide by 1920Execution of Czar Nicholas IIVote given to all men over twenty-one and women over thirty

Joyce's ExilesThomas' Last Poems

Jan: Miners publishedSpring: Owen at Ripon Command Depot where he redrafts poetryJune: Owen passed as fit for active serviceAugust: Etaples, FranceSept: Amiens, FranceOct: assault on Beauvevoir-Fonsomme after which Owen is awarded the Military CrossNov 4th: Owen killed on the Oise-Sambre CanalNov 5th: London Gazette reports Owen’s promotion to full LieutenantNov 8th: Owen buried at OrsNov 11th: Armistice declared. News of Owen’s death received by his parents in Shrewsbury